The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

As I've been posting these many problems with Skyrim, one after another, I've tried to put them in an order that makes sense, and is not dependant on my own preferences, starting with problems with the game system itself, then character creation, problems with the main character's abilities and nature, with the external world, quests and activities, and finally, problems with specific types of characters that you can play as in the game, and I think this works well overall, but there are many other ways to categorize these problems. For example, one thing I noticed as I was posting these is that they also fall into the categories of "reduction of the role of numbers," "reduction of difficulty," "reduction of content," "reduction of consequences for player actions," "reduction of gameplay element usability," and "reduction of aesthetic quality." Using this system...

Still, I thought that before I get to the links to the individual problems, this would be a good spot to explain why, in my view, Skyrim is not a bad game, regardless.

Skyrim Non-Problems

Non-Problem 1; Dual Wielding

There are many things that Skyrim did well. For one thing, it was nice to see them putting dual wielding in. It could perhaps have been done better, but it was a good first try, for dual wielding.

Non-Problem 2; Enchanting Requirements

The whole system of needing to break down enchanted items in order to learn their enchantments, thus increasing the demands on the player before enchanting was, in my view, a good move. In fact, I think it's one of the best changes that Skyrim made to the series.

Non-Problem 3; Crafting Content

Although some crafting is broken, one of the things that still pleases me most about Skyrim is the sheer amount of content that can actually be crafted (more with mods.) In this area, it exceeds past games by quite a bit. There's just so much more to build.

Non-Problem 4; The Lore

Putting it simply, Skyrim has far more books than past games, and they have far more to say. I wish you encountered this lore more often, but the mod "Ruined Book Replacer" by Engy helps to solve that issue, making it possible to run into more books, more often.

Non-Problem 5; Jobs

In Skyrim, there are many ways to earn money without going questing or slaughtering anyone, and this is a rather new aspect of the series. You can make a pretty comfortable living just chopping wood or gathering wheat. Granted, the economics of it don't seem to have been ironed out, but as a first try a peace-oriented jobs, it's a nice and noticable addition.

Non-Problem 6; The Leftovers

Pretty much anything that wasn't diminished or negatively altered from past games seems to work just fine in Skyrim, such as the basic character controls and such. Skyrim is more different from past TES games than it is similar, but there are some leftovers, and they still taste fine.

Now, the fifty Skyrim Problems, in order, beginning with...

Main Game Problems

Skyrim Problem #1: Uninspired Opening Screen

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Problem #1: Skyrim's first problem pops into view right off the bat, and they really have no excuse for this one. I mean, the hype for this game was huge, and the trailer was universally-available, and on everyone's mind prior to the launch date. Everybody had heard and loved the background music for the trailer, and seen the awesome scenes of an ornate stone carving, an epic battle between a warrior and a dragon, and the swirling lights of an absorbed dragon soul. We all knew, in short, that the game would be epic-looking and dynamic before it even came out. So, what do they pick for the opening screen?

For the opening screen, we get some brief drumbeats over a bethesda logo, which, unlike in previous games, you can't skip past. Then, boom! Solid black, with a symbol on it, and some selectable options for game starting and loading tucked away in the lower right corner.

I mean, -come on,- game developers! I know this kind of minimalist stuff was popular once, but these days, it just comes across as pretentious. Oh, and good job tucking the menu away in a corner like that. Goodness knows we needed all that extra space, because the game simply would not have survived if the gamers missed out on any of that black.

Now, there's a little bit of smoke in the foreground at the very bottom of the screen, but smoke on a black background isn't really visually impressive, nor is it an indication of anything to come, since there are really no smoke barriers in Skyrim, as far as I can tell.

The loading screens are only slightly better, in that they're exactly the same, except that instead of just one logo, they have 3d pictures of various objects advancing or receding away from you, though again, with the same smoke, and on the same black paintbucket background.

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Solution: Sadly, the black background is still there, no matter what I do, but there is a way to cover it up. Thanks to hellstorm102, the black fill of the normal main menu can be covered over with the various cool and epic game scenes and iconic imagery of the Skyrim world that Bethesda really should have put in themselves. On top of that, if you don't like the normal background music for the main opening screen, there are many, many mods to fix that, substituting a wide variety of music for Bethesda's opening screen music.

Unfortunately, however, this has not been done with the loading screens. As far as I can tell, there is no mod to make them cooler and less static.

Edit; Actually, the loading screens are different, in that the 3D images can be rotated for fun, using the mouse while the game is loading. Kudos to Aergistal for this contribution. That makes them more lively and interesting than the main menu by quite a lot, actually.

Edit 2; There's also a mod to edit the black backdrop of the main menu into a picture. The mod is "Immersive Menu Background" by Sovn. Thanks to Didz for letting me know about this one.

Since the Skyrim's experience is unique for each player, I think the minimalist black menu works as intended. It puts emphasis on discovery.

Sometimes you can't skip intros because the game is secretly preloading stuff in the background.

And now a tip reagrding loading screens which is probabily the next thing you won't like:you can actually rotate the objects shown with the mouse and I guess controller.

Huh. No, I didn't know that. Thank you. I'll add that to the solution, actually, and credit you for the discovery.

The one thing I would say is that if I wanted discovery to be the intended mood of an opening screen, I would have used white, or gray, or perhaps some kind of fixed pattern, like the paper-y background of Morrowind, because you generally have a much -harder- time discovering anything in pitch blackness.

because you generally have a much -harder- time discovering anything in pitch blackness.

If you want the metaphysical reasoning then: the dragon in the logo is supposed to be Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time. He is assumed to be the first God to appear in the beginning.So it's really Akatosh rising out of the darkness. And the darkness is black : )

I guess, since it was that way, it was okay to me and I never really paid attention to neither the menu screen nor the loading ones. The loading screens were in fact just small gaps of time I could use to take a sip of tea or a bite of my food.

And as many, I spend no more than 5 seconds with the menu screen (if the song starts playing I can't start until I've listened to it, it just works like that), and I didn't even watch the trailer before long after I started playing, so what the game itself showed me is what I accepted and what I got used to, and what I now am quite attached to. I wouldn't change neither the menu or loadscreens, nor the inventory-, magic- and maplayout (I'm looking at you, SkyUI) for all the septims in the game.

This is not a problem it is a troll. Please try to find something to say that is not just taking up Forum space, this whole thread is exactly the same as the loading screen ... empty of anything worth seeing.

because you generally have a much -harder- time discovering anything in pitch blackness.

If you want the metaphysical reasoning then: the dragon in the logo is supposed to be Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time. He is assumed to be the first God to appear in the beginning.So it's really Akatosh rising out of the darkness. And the darkness is black : )

This is not a problem it is a troll. Please try to find something to say that is not just taking up Forum space, this whole thread is exactly the same as the loading screen ... empty of anything worth seeing.

I guess, since it was that way, it was okay to me and I never really paid attention to neither the menu screen nor the loading ones. The loading screens were in fact just small gaps of time I could use to take a sip of tea or a bite of my food.

And as many, I spend no more than 5 seconds with the menu screen (if the song starts playing I can't start until I've listened to it, it just works like that), and I didn't even watch the trailer before long after I started playing, so what the game itself showed me is what I accepted and what I got used to, and what I now am quite attached to. I wouldn't change neither the menu or loadscreens, nor the inventory-, magic- and maplayout (I'm looking at you, SkyUI) for all the septims in the game.

Casual gaming, then? If so, that's a fair reason for not objecting to this problem. If I've gotten that wrong, please let me know. I don't want to misrepresent your view on the subject, but it sounds like you're describing a very casual approach to the game, as opposed to a studious, artistic critique.